Posts Tagged ‘2012’

As 2012 draws to a close, it’s hard not to be reminded that 2013 will begin with Ron Paul retired from Congress. For all those years he was a fearless truth-teller, who exposed and denounced the horrors, domestic or foreign, of the regime. His farewell address – something practically unheard of for a congressman in the first place – will continue to be read years from now, as future Americans look back with astonishment that such a man actually served in the US Congress.

For most of his career, those speeches were delivered to a largely empty chamber and to audiences of modest size around the country. A man of Ron’s intelligence could have grown in stature and influence in no time at all had he been willing to play the game. He wasn’t. And he was perfectly at peace with the result: although he wasn’t a major political celebrity, he had done his moral duty.

Little did he know that those thankless years of pointing out the State’s lies and refusing to be absorbed into the Blob would in fact make him a hero one day. To see Ron speaking to many thousands of cheering kids, when all the while respectable opinion had been warning them to stay far away from this dangerous man, is more gratifying and encouraging than I can say. I was especially thrilled when a tempestuous Ron, responding to the Establishment’s description of his campaign as “dangerous,” said, you’re darn right – I am dangerous, to them.

Some people used to tell Ron that if only he’d stop talking about foreign policy he might win more supporters. He knew it was all nonsense. Foreign policy was the issue that made Ron into a phenomenon. There would have been no Ron Paul movement in the first place had Ron not distinguished himself from the pack by refusing to accept the cartoonish narrative, peddled not only by Rudy Giuliani but also by the luminaries of both major political parties, accounting for the origins of 9/11.

How many bills did he pass, right-wing scoffers demand to know. A successful Republican politician, in between his usual activity of expanding government power, is supposed to have rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic five or six times, by means of bills with his name on them. At best, the bills these politicos boast about amounted to marginal changes of momentary significance, if even that. More commonly, even the bills they trumpeted turned out to be ambiguous or actually negative from a libertarian standpoint.

What is Ron’s legacy? Not some phony bill, of zero significance in the general avalanche of statism. For his legacy, look around you.

The Federal Reserve, an issue not discussed in American politics in a hundred years, is under greater scrutiny now than ever before. Austrian economics is enjoying a rebirth that dwarfs the attention it received when F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974 – and when you ask people how they heard about the Austrian School, the universal answer is Ron Paul. One man brought about this intellectual revolution. How’s that for a legacy?

And that’s not to mention how many people Ron introduced to libertarian thought in general, or how many hawks reconsidered their position on war because of Ron’s arguments and example.

Even the mainstream media has to acknowledge the existence of a whole new category of thinker: one that is antiwar, anti-Fed, anti-police state, and pro-market. The libertarian view is even on the map of those who despise it. That, too, is Ron’s doing.

Young people are reading major treatises in economics and philosophy because Ron Paul recommended them. Who else in public life can come close to saying that?

How manybills did he get passed? Talk about missing the point.

Where are the hordes of students dying to learn from Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, or Mitt Romney?

Remember, too, that in politics there’s always some excuse for why the message of liberty can’t be delivered. I have to satisfy the party leadership. I have to keep the media off my back. The moment is inopportune. My constituents aren’t ready to hear it – so instead of explaining myself and persuading them, I’ll just keep my mouth shut, or minimize my position to the point where I sound like any old politician, except ten percent better.

And all the while, would-be donors are assured that this is all a facade, that the politician is really one of us and not what he appears to be. For the time being, you understand, he has to contradict his core beliefs in order to ingratiate himself into the favor of those whose support he will one day need.

Once elected, he still cannot really say what he thinks. Don’t you want him to get re-elected?

Ron never acted this way. At times he would explain the libertarian position in ways likely to resonate with a particular audience, but he never compromised or backed away.

It’s been said that if you ask Ron Paul a question, he gives you a straight answer. That’s an understatement. All through his presidential campaigns he sent the guardians of opinion into hysterics. Why, he can’t say that! That wasn’t even one of the choices! To the gatekeepers’ astonishment, his numbers kept on growing.

No politician is going to trick the public into embracing liberty, even if liberty were his true goal and not just a word he uses in fundraising letters. For liberty to advance, a critical mass of the public has to understand and support it. That doesn’t have to mean a majority, or even anywhere near it. But some baseline of support has to exist.

That is why Ron Paul’s work is so important and so lasting.

Ten years from now, no one will remember the men who opposed Ron in the GOP primaries. Half of them are forgotten already. But fifty years from now (and longer), young kids will still be learning from Ron: reading his books, following his recommendations for further study, and taking inspiration from his courage and principle.

With Ron’s Congressional career drawing to a close, we should remember that we have witnessed something highly unusual, and exceedingly unlikely to be repeated. And we should also remember Ron’s parting advice: the real revolution is not in Washington, DC. It’s in the world of ideas.

That’s what Ron is devoting the rest of his life to, and it’s one more thing he has to teach us. So watch for news of his institutionalized work for peace, his homeschooling curriculum, his homepage, and his TV network. Far from retiring, Ron Paul is stepping up his work for liberty. And in this work, there is a place for all of us.

As Goes Nevada, So Goes the Country!
Nevada GOP Moves Forward with Two Resounding Resolutions

November 6th was a lackluster date for most Republicans, even more so for followers of Ron Paul. After being stomped upon at the Republican National Convention, many went back to their states to lick their wounds and take stock of their chances for liberty candidates in 2014 and 2016.

Nevada was one of the six states which had a plurality of their delegates nominate Ron Paul at the national convention (the others were Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon, Alaska and the U.S. Territory of the Virgin Islands). This exceeded the requirement of the Republican Party’s Rule Number 40 for “support of a plurality of the delegates from each of five or more states.” But in a power grab, the RNC changed the number of states from five to eight ex post facto.

Las Vegas is what comes to mind when most people think of Nevada, but the state is actually made up of three very different geographic and cultural divisions. In the north is Washoe County, containing the second largest city in the state: Reno. Washoe and Clark County (Las Vegas) had enough of the Harry Reid voting machine success to turn the state blue November 6th; but all the other rural mining and cow counties in Nevada were decidedly red. For a state whose motto is “Battle Born,” the situation hasn’t changed much in almost 150 years since statehood.

Let My Delegates Go!
Ron Paul’s message of liberty is popular with Nevadans, and when the majority of the national delegates elected at the Republican State Convention were his followers, it didn’t take much to figure out that trouble would be brewing. Most of these delegates had been bound from a binding vote that was taken at a 2010 GOP State Central Committee (SCC) meeting regarding the 2012 caucus. Mitt Romney won the caucus in Nevada, and the majority of the delegates were bound to him on the first ballot. Would these delegates throw off their traces in Tampa? If you followed the convention, you know that they did in their attempt to nominate Dr. Paul. Upon their return to Nevada, the Delegation Chair, Dr. Wayne Terhune, along with the delegates who unbound, were sternly censured by the Nevada GOP Executive Committee.

But, Ron Paul’s Nevada following does not take censure lightly, and they were well-prepared for the first post-national election GOP State Central Committee meeting in November. Two resolutions were presented that dealt with the binding, and the rules changes at the national convention (“Re-establish Republican Unity and Principles”).

The Opinion on National Delegate Binding Rules resolution, basically stated “…that the Nevada Republican Central Committee (NRCC) finds that the Nevada Special Caucus Rules of 2012 were not properly considered by the NRCC because the body was rushed into a decision on the delegate binding process without proper notice, research, or debate,” and “…to formally propose rules at the next regular NRCC meeting to prevent this from occurring in the future, by requiring the same prior notice for the adoption or amending of rules as is currently required for the adopting or amending of the by-laws.”

There was testimony from SCC members as to the chicanery involved in the 2010 meeting in which Congressman Mark Amodei, former State Party Chair, implied to County Chairs that the binding would not come up at that meeting, and that “No issues of importance would be decided. Binding won’t be on the agenda.” It was a meeting they could miss.

It was brought up that the 2010 SCC vote to bind Nevada’s national delegates also violated the Code of Federal Regulations, 11 CFR 100.2 (e) and 42 USC 1971 – Sec. 1971, Voting Rights, which states: ” No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not vote for, any candidate for the office of President.”

There was quite strident arguing about parts of the resolution, particularly a paragraph that would have censured Amodei for his manipulation of the 2010 SCC meeting. Those particulars were stricken, but the important body of the resolution remained: the binding violated Nevada GOP State Party Rules, and more importantly, Federal Regulations. The Nevada National Delegates should have never been bound. No state’s delegates should have ever been bound. The resolution passed, and Nevada will never be bound again.

The RNC Rules Were NEVER Passed!
If you were at the GOP National Convention, or watched it on tv, then you witnessed the chaos that ensued when a new set of draconian rules were swept into place, even though it seemed like a majority of the voice vote was “NO!” In spite of the dissension, Convention Chair John Boehner continued to read the teleprompter which scrolled up that the rules were unanimously passed.

Regarding these rules changes, Shawn Meehan presented a Resolution to Reestablish Republican Unity and Principles, or a Resolution to Restore the Power of the Grassroots. Drafted by nine Central Committee and Executive Members, who represented all factions in the state, Meehan explained, “If this resolution passes, we’ll default to 2008 rules. We need to let the RNC know that we are supportive of them, but are petitioning them to obey the rules. We voted unanimously to delay bringing this resolution forward until after the election, out of respect for Romney. Ron Paul is the one who did not get nominated because of the rules change. In the next election, you could be advocating strongly for a minority candidate, but YOU could be disenfranchised. Our rules need to be enforced. We are in direct contact with Vermont, Maine and Texas. They will take this resolution verbatim if we pass it, and consider it for their own resolutions. We don’t want to punish (National Chairman) Rance Priebus, but want to get his attention. Pixie dust, and pretending to get along just doesn’t work.”

The resolution (printed at the end of this article), recognizes that the 2012 Rules were never passed and that the 2008 Rules were in effect for the convention, and still are in effect. If that is the case, it “RESOLVED that the Nevada Republican Central Committee petitions the RNC that the record of the 2012 RNC Convention be amended to show that Dr. Ron Paul’s name was put into nomination by the submission of the six nominating forms in accordance with the rules in effect at that time.”

In an addendum regarding “Specific Grievances:”

1) The report of the 2012 RNC Convention Rules Committee was not accepted properly. Legitimate cries of “Division” were heard, clearly requiring actions which were not taken (see Rules of the House of Representatives, Rule XX, 1. (a) Voting and Quorum Calls)

2) Therefore, Rule 40(b) could not have been amended and the original requirement for five states remained the criteria. Considering this and that the RNC Secretary was handed candidate nomination forms in accordance with the rules, there should have been a nomination from the floor. The record of the convention fails to reflect this.

When the vote for this resolution came to the floor of the SCC meeting, it passed in a huge outcry of “Aye.” Not just the Ron Paul supporters were incensed with the new rules and how they were forced upon the party. Now, this resolution must take wings and fly to the rest of the states and be passed if the party is to truly move on. The final paragraph of the addendum reads: “This Party belongs to all of us and We The People declare that the rules will be followed. Going forward, the duty to ensure integrity in our party falls to all our members. Mr. Clint Eastwood was most correct at our convention when he stated, “We (you and me) own this country…politicians are our employees.” The leadership of the RNC are our employees. As Republicans, we must remain engaged and supervise our employees.”

Since Nevada’s November SCC meeting, nationally there are now 31 State Committee Co-Sponsors of the Resolution to Restore the Power of the Grassroots. These numbers continue to grow as more states hold their own State Central Committee meetings.

This resolution will be submitted at the RNC Winter Meeting, January 23-26 in Charlotte, NC, at the Westin Hotel. GOP Chair Rance Priebus will also be up for re-election, and his future is bleak for keeping his post at the helm of the party. Besides the Ron Paul factions, the entire grassroots was alienated by the rules changes he orchestrated at the convention, and it is likely that his days are numbered as far as leading the party. His head is also on the chopping block for running what was universally perceived as a dismal campaign for Romney.

Ron Paul Never Got His Nomination Speech
While the passage of these two resolutions by Nevada Republicans were a triumph for those who love liberty, it was little solace for those who had worked so hard, and risked so much to nominate Ron Paul. The good doctor was actually nominated. He could have taken the podium and given the most memorable speech of the convention. Paul’s supporters still fervently believe that if he had been the Republican nominee, Obama would have been defeated. Paul’s message of freedom, peace and sound money rings true with everyone, including the notorious 47%.

But, knowing Dr. Paul, he would look at what happened at the Nevada State Central Committee meeting in November of 2012, along with 30 other states, as proof that his message is still very much alive, and that the flag has never fallen. The cause for liberty has taken over Nevada’s and other state’s Republican Parties, and it is what will unify the GOP nationally, if it is smart enough to realize what a prize it has in the universal movement created by Ron Paul.

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